Feed mechanism



Oct. 25, 1932. R. B. WOODCOCK ET AL 1,884,949

FEED MECHANISM Filed Oct. 24. 1929 s Sheets-Sheet 1 Fig.1.

B AME R na/Em" Oct. 25, 1932. R. B. WOODCOCK ET AL I 1,884,949

- FEED MECHANISM Filed Oct. 24, 1929 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Oct. 25, 1932. R. B. WOODCOCK ET AL FEED MECHANISM Filed 001;. 24. 1929 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 .and partly in elevation of a slide valve Patented Oct. 25, 1932 iirso STATES PATENT OFFICE REGINALD BOYD WOODCOCK ANDTHOMAS AUBREY KESTEEL, OF LEICESTER, ENGLAND, ASSIGNORS 'IO UNITED MACHINERY CORPORATION, OF PATERSON, NEW

JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY FEED MECHANISM Application fi1ed..0ctober 24, 1929, Serial No. 402,266, and in Great Britain November 21, 1928.

Thisinvention relates tomechanism for feeding blanks of, sheetmaterial one by one from a stack to astation at which may be located a machine for receiving and treating or operating upon the blanks.

According to one feature of the inventionthe blanks are removed'one by one from the bottom of the stack by a member employing suction and are then engaged by other means and advanced to the station.

This and other features of the invention including certain details of construction and combinations of parts will be described as embodied in an illustrated mechanism and pointed out in the appended claims.

Referring now to the accompanying drawings,

Fig. l is a side elevation of a mechanism in which the invention is embodied;

Fig. 2 is a partial end elevation of the mechanism;

Fig. 3 is a view of certain parts shown in Fig. 1 in a changed position;

Fig. 4 shows a plan view of the mechanism; and

Figs. 5 and 6 are views partly lIISGCtlOH an filter used in the mechanism. I

The illustrated mechanism embodies a horizontal bed plate 10 on which is mounted a magazine for containing the blanks in a stack. In the bed plate 10 is mounted a sliding suction feed plate 12 adapted to take the blanks one by one from the bottom of the stack and deliver them to a separate fingerfeeding mechanism which operates to take each blank from the suction feed plate, and deliver-it to a station which may be the entry to a machine for treating or operating upon the blanks.

The magazine is composed of a fixedfront plate 14 and adjustable side portions 16 forming vertical walls defining a space in which the blanks may be retained without lateral movement but free to pass downwardly within the space. The side portions .16 are adjusted in position on the bed plate according to the size of blank being dealt with. As shown in Figures 1, 2 and 3 the portions 16 have slotted lugs' 18 by which they may be adjusted laterally of the bed plate upon supporting brackets 20 which are slotted for adj ustinent longitudinally of the bed. The front plate 14 is provided with-a gate piece 22 adjustable vertically, according to the thickness of the blanks, by means of a stud 24 and eccentric bush 25.

The bed plate 10 is mounted by means of lugs 28 integral with it upon a supporting frame 30 secured by bolts 31 to side members 32 in which is mounted a shaft 33 arranged to have an adjustable connection with a shaft 34 driven from any convenient source of power. Referring more particularly to Fig. 4, the shafts 33 and 34 are in linewith each other; and the adjustable connection comprises a disk 35 fast to the end of the shaft 33, said disk having a raised segmental portion 135 provided with a series of threaded holes into any selected one of which the lower end of the stem of a cap screw 36 may be threaded. The stem of this cap screw has a smooth portion adjacent to its head which passes through a bore'in one end of an arm 37 which is fast to the end of the shaft 34. By this means the shaft 33 and the feeding mechanism driven from it, as will be described, can be varied in its timing relatively .to the driving shaft 34 and, therefore, to any blank treating device which may be driven from said driving shaft. Groups of blanks of different sizes are positioned in the magazine with their leading edges at a definite position relatively to the bed plate against the gate piece of the front plate 14 of the magazine; and, accordingly, the timing of the feed mechanism with respect to the operating or blank treating mechanism may require to be changed when a group of blanks the members of which are larger or smaller than those of a preceding group are being handled. A scale 39 on the edge of the disc indicates the required setting of the arm 37 in any one of the holes 38 in the disc 35 by marks corresponding to various blank dimensions.

The suction feed plate 12 and the finger feed device are operated to slide backwards and forwards on the bed plate 10 by levers I actuated from two cam tracks one on each side of a compound cam disc '44 mounted on the shaft 33. The one of these levers 40, which operates the suction feed plate is connected to the latter at its upper end by a link 41. The lever operating the finger feed device is composed of two arms 42 and 43 fast to an idle rock shaft 143 (Fig. 4) The shaft 33 carries in addition a cam 45 for operating a slide valve mounted under the bed plate and controlling the application of suction through a pipe (Fig. 5) from a continuously driven pump to the suction feed plate surface which has an orifice (shown as a group of ioles 47) leading to the under side of the lowermost blank of the StiLCK. The pump is not shown on the drawings and may be of any usual and suitable type. Furthermore the pump may be at some distance from the feeding device being connected thereto by the pipe 50.

The orifice in the feed plate leads to a short pipe 48 connected to the slide valve chamber by a flexible hose piece 49. The slide valve is operated to open the feed plate orifice to suction when the plate is in its rearmost position with the orifice under the magazine, to

maintain the suction while the plate moves forward, and to cut off the suction when the plate is in its forward position. The cam 45 operates the slide valve 46 by pressing against a roller 47 pivoted to the upper end of the slide valve. A spring 148 tends to maintain the slide valve in contact with the cam. As shown in Figures 5 and 6 the flexible hose 49 from the suction feed plate may be connected to a filter 51 containing liquid and arranged to extract and retain any particles of dust or the like drawn in from the blanks on the feed plate. The filter is in turn connected by a pipe 52 to the slide valve cham ber. Referring to Figure 4, the suction feed plate 12 is shown in its rearward position with its orifice under the magazine. From this position it moves forward until its leading edge is closely adjacent the rear ends of narrow bars 55 which are rigidly mounted upon the bed plate of the machine and serve to support the blanks during the latter part of their travel under the action of the finger feeding device now to be described.

The finger feed device comprises an oscillating bar 54 mounted transversely of the bed plate in a bearing upon a slide 56 guided on one side edge of the bed plate and connected by a link 57 to the lever 42. The upper end of the lever 42 is slotted to provide adjustment of the travel imparted to the slide 56, a stud on the link 57 being adjustable within the slot by a screw 58. The two feed fingers 59 are carried by a cross-bar 53 which is detachably attached to the bar 54 by a spring-plunger 61. These feed fingers are raised at the end of the forward stroke of the feed slide 56 so as to free the blank which they have brought forward, and are lowered into engagement with another blank at the end of the backward stroke of the feed slide, this lowering and raising of the feed fingers into and out of operative relation to a blank being accomplished by oscillating the bar 54 about its longitudinal axis. The oscillation of the bar 54 at the proper times is brought about by mechanism comprising two rocking levers of which the first, 60, is rigidly connected to the bar 54 and the second, 62, is pivoted on the slide 56. A tension spring 63 connects the lower ends of these two levers tending to maintain detent faces on them in contact. The lever is provided with an interior right angled corner piece 64 and the lever 62' with an exterior right angled p ece 66. The upper ends of the levers 60 and 62 act as contact members, contacting respectively with adjustable front and rear stops 68 and 70 mounted respectively upon the machine frame upon the bed plate at pos tions near the ends of the limits of travel of the slide 56.

Referring to Figure 1, the slide 56 is shown at the end of its forward travel, the fingers 59 hav ng been raised to release a blank brought up by them by the rocking of the lever 60 and bar 54 caused by Contact of the upper end of the lever 60 with the stop 68. The levers 60 and 62 are retained in their relative position, with the fingers 59 raised, by engagement of the exterior corner piece 66 of the lever 62 with the interior corner piece 64 of the lever 60 during the rearward movement of the slide 56 until the upper end of the lever 62 contacts with the stop 70. The movement of the levers and fingers resulting from this latter contact is shown in Figure 3, pressure of the lever 62 against the stop 70 having depressed the exterior corner piece 66 under the lower end of the lever 60. i

The fingers 59 are thus droppechwhen the slide 56 is in its rearmost position, upon a blank brought forward by the suction feed plate 12 and are retained pressing upon the blank until the slide 56 again reaches the position shown in Figure 1. The timings of travel of the slide 56 and the suction plate 12 are such that the fingers 59 are dropped (when in their rearmost position) upon a blank which has been brought forward from the magazine by the plate 12 as soon as that plate has reached its forward limit of movement.

The stack of blanks held in position by the front and side wall members of the magazine is maintained pressed downwardly by a block 7 2 (Figure 1) having projections 7 4 adapted to engage selected areas of the blanks. The block 72 is universally pivoted at the lower end of a vertical bar 7 6 which is guided by passing through a bore in the upper end of a bracket 78 said bracket being pivotedon a stud 80 to the top of the magazine front plate. When refilling of the magazine is required, the bracket 78 may be turned about its pivot to swing the bar 7 6 bodily into a position in front of the magazine was to allow free access to the space within the magazine Walls.

In commercial practice it may be desirable to run a number of machines of which the suction for feed is derived from a single pump common to all of them, and consee 'quently it is desirable to ensure that the suction of the pump on any feed plate is not impaired by'the absence of a blank from (or the insufficient seating of a blank on) the feed plate of any other machine connected to the pump. -To prevent any such effect there is provided for each suction feed plate an automatically acting valve shown in Figure 6 which serves to close the duct leading from the plate if, by reason of the failure of a blank to close the orifice in the plate, any considerable quantity ofair flows through that orifice. The automatic valve may be'arranged in the following manner. A metal ball 82 is placed within a chamber adjacent to the slide valve chamber in a position such that a flow of air greater than occurs when a blank is properly seated on the orifice will cause the ball to move up a sloping surface 84 in the chamber to a position in which it closes temporarily the duct 86 leading. from the chamber to the slide valve. The ball 82 is retained in suitable position for the air stream to act upon it by an adjustable stop 88, and the ball will return to its initial position against this stop under the action of gravity (which may be assisted by a light spring if desired) immediately the suction is stopped in its duct in' the ordinary way by the closure of the slide valve 46 at the time corresponding to that at which the suction feed slide 12 reaches its forward position and the blank is re-' quired to be released from the suction feed plate for the finger feed to take charge of it.

In the operation of the mechanism the magazine is filled with blanks, for example box toe blanks, of a given size, and power is applied to the shaft 34. It will be understood that some sort of a machine for treating or operating upon the blanks is located in position to receive blanks one by one from the feed fingers 59 and that this machine is or may be driven from the shaft 34. As the suction feed slide 12 moves forward it carries the lowermost blank of the stack out of the magazine. Meanwhile the slide 56 has been moving backward. At the time the suction feed slide reaches the end of its forward movement and the vacuum in its suction orifice is broken by operation of the slide valve 46, the slide 56 has reached the limit of its rearward movement, and the feed fingers 59 have been brought down upon the blank by the action of the stop 7 0 upon the lever 62.

The suction feed slide then moves backward into position to engage through its suction orifice another blank of the stack, while the feed fingers 59 deliver the blank with which they are in contact to the-desired station at which the machine for treating or operating upon the blanks receivesthe blank as it is released by the fingers 59.

The mechanism above described may be used in handling blanks which are to be util-'- ized as toe stifi'eners in boots and shoes, for example blanks cut from celluloid-impregnated fabric such as is disclosed in Patent No. 1,256,240, granted February 12, 1918 upon an application filed in the name of Stanley"- -P.' Lovell. Such blanks commonly have skived margins and in any event require treatment by a softening liquid to put them into condition to be incorporated in the upper of ashoe. These blanks may be fed one by one by the feeding fingers 59'to a blank conditioning machinein which the'blanks are treated with the softening liquid, said mechanism comprising, for example, a pair of feed rollers to which the blanks are delivered.

Although'the invention has been set forth as embodied in a particular mechanism which has been described as adapted to feed box toe blanks to a machine :for operating upon them, it should be understood that the in vention is not limited in I the scope of its application to the mechanism which has been shown and described nor to use with any,

of the stack and removing the blank from the stack, and a feed finger for engaging the upper face of the blank and advancing it to the station.

'2. Mechanism for feeding blanks of sheet material one by one from a stack of blanks to a station having, in combination, a maga f.

zine for a stack of blanks, a slide member for removing the lowermost blank from the stack,v a second slide member for engaging the blank and advancing it'to the station, and

means forreciprocating said slides in such I'- manner that while one slide ismoving forward the other is moving backward.

3. .Mechanism for feeding blanks of sheet material one by one from a stack of blanks to a. station having, in combination, a'maga zine for the stack of blanks, a suction slide upon which the lowermost blank of the stack normally rests, means formoving the slide to separate the lowermost blank from the stack,- a second slide, and means for moving the second slide to advance the blank to the station. I

' 4. Mechanism for feeding blanks of sheet material one by one from a stack of blanks to a station having, in combination a maga' second slide to advance the blank to the sta- 7 tion. r a

5. Mechanism for feeding blanks one by i one froma stack to a station having, in combination, a magazine for the stack of blanks, a suction feed plate for removing the lower most blank from the stack, a feed member for taking the blank from the first feed member and delivering it to the station, a valve for i controlling the application of suction through the suction feed plate, a driving shaft, and means for operatingthesuction plate, the feed member and the valve from the driving shaft.

6. Mechanism for feedingblanks of sheet material one by one from a given position to a station having, in combination, a feed slide, a support upon which the blanks rest while being fed, a blank-engaging finger mounted upon the slide, means for moving the slide backward into proximity to the given position and then forward into proximity to the station, and means operated by the backward movement of the slide for causing the finger to descend upon the upper face of the blank.

7 Mechanism for feeding blanks of sheet material one by one from a given position to a station having, in combination, a feed slide, a support upon which the blanks rest while being fed, a blank-engaging linger mounted upon the slide, means for moving the slide backward into proximity to the given position and then forward into proximity to the station, means operated by thev backward movement of the slide for causing the finger to descend upon the upper face of the blank, and means operated by the forward movement of the slide for raising the finger from the blank.

8. Mechanism for feeding blanks of sheet material one by one from a given position to a station having, in combination, a feed slide, a blank-engaging finger pivoted upon the slide, means for moving the slide backward into proximity to the given position and then forward into proximity to the station, a plurality of stops, and means carried by the slide and adapted to contact with the stops for swinging the finger back and forth from op-' erative to inoperative position.

9. Mechanism for feeding blanks one by one from the bottom of a stack of blanks to a station having, in combination, a magazine for the stack of blanks, a feed slide for engaging the lowermost blank of the stack,

said slide having an orifice, asuction pipe connected with the orifice and through which air is drawn to produce a vacuum in the orifice, a valve in the pipe, means for operatmg the valve to form and to break the vacuum at the proper times, and means for automatically closing the connection through the valve between the suction pipe and the orifice when the amount of air passing through the pipe reaches predetermined limit.

10, Mechanism for feeding blanks of sheet material one by one from a stack to a station having, in combination, a magazine forthe stack of blanks, a member for engaging the under face of the lowermost blank and feed ing the blank from the stack, a support upon which. the blank is delivered, and a feed finger for engaging the upper face of the blank and feeding it. over said support and in contact therewith to the station. a,

in testimony whereof we have names to this specification.

REGINALD BOYD WOODCQCK. THOMAS AUBREY KESTELL.

signed our 

